


Making a big deal out of it

by divenire



Series: Prompt Project [52]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, So there you go, Stiles is an idiot, Stiles starts telling people that Derek is gay, because he doesn't want girls to ask Derek out, but Derek is also an idiot, but then Danny tries to ask Derek out, problem not solved, which no obviously he can't, who apparently thinks Stiles can read minds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divenire/pseuds/divenire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Um, so, I was thinking,” she says and she does that thing where she nervously bites down on her bottom lip. “If neither of you have any plans for tuesday night, maybe you could come by the school for the LGBT Alliance meeting? I’m a member and we can always use new people, especially since the both of you are out and everything.” </p><p>The instant she says this, Stiles wants to run out of the store. Run and not come back. He fully intends to, actually, but then his feet refuse to move, like they’ve been cemented in place. </p><p>Derek gets this look on his face, like he’s got a really bad ice cream headache all of a sudden and he says, “I’m sorry, what?” The words sound strangled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making a big deal out of it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [talktowater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/talktowater/gifts).



> talk to water prompted me: “Okay, so I like the idea of a girl at school seeing Stiles and Derek together and asking Stiles if Derek is available etc. And Stiles just lying about it, even though he doesn’t know why he’s doing it. He tells her, “He’s gay.” Because this girl is pretty, and it just makes him feel nervous thinking about her meeting Derek and wanting to date him, and not because he’s worried about her safety.  
> Of course, it’s a small town, and this girl will probably run into Derek and Stiles while they’re out and say things that are a bit suspicious and make Derek scowly.  
> Of course Derek will figure it out at some point, but if you wanted to stretch it out then Danny could even take a crack at Derek once word gets out about Stiles’ hot gay friend.” 
> 
> And she prompted me this well over a month ago so I’m sorry this took so long! I think my brain took an extended holiday after writing so much so fast before. So, yeah. But it's done now! 
> 
> And also, thanks to Korrynvictoria for the ending! Because, yeah.

Stiles and Derek have been friends for a while now. Just friends. That’s it. But just friends is better than ‘I think he’s hot but he looks like he wants to kill me’, so Stiles takes it. He also happily takes the calm that has settled over Beacon Hills in the last few months. He’s about to start his senior year and it seems like they might finally, hopefully, possibly be past all the life or death drama of things like the Kanima and the Alpha Pack.

And it’s a little weird, being friends with Derek, largely because of how not weird it actually is. Scowling and wearing nothing but leather jackets aside, Derek is surprisingly good company when no one is trying to kill them. They watch stupid movies, they eat ridiculous amounts of bad food and they play video games. Basically, all the things Stiles used to do with Scott before Scott found himself completely occupied by Allison and now by Isaac. 

And Stiles finds himself not needing to fill every single silence when he’s around Derek. He never knew what exactly a “comfortable silence” was before (before, all silences made him uncomfortable) but now? Now he gets it. And it’s nice. It’s, well, comfortable. 

But all that changes when in the middle of the school year, a girl Stiles knows from his biology class, Sarah, or something, walks up to him and sits next to him at lunch. He’s confused about why she’s sitting with him until she opens her mouth and says, “So you’re friends with that guy, Derek, right?” She smiles brightly and Stiles knows exactly where this is going. He knows and instantly he starts to panic. In response to her question, he takes a big bite out of his sandwich and nods slowly. 

“So, I know this is kinda awkward, but he doesn’t seem to hang out with too many people and I was kinda wondering...” she trails off, her smile nearly bright enough to be blinding and twirls a lock of hair around her finger. “I was kinda wondering if... umm... if he’s seeing anyone?”  
Stiles knew this was coming but he can’t help but bark out a laugh at her question. Derek would never go for a girl like this. She’s wearing a pink sweater. And her hair is in pigtails, for god’s sake. Derek would never go for someone like that. Right? 

But what if he did?

Stiles can feel the panic overriding his brain and he can’t stop himself from saying, “Oh, um, I don’t think so, but you’re not exactly his, um, type.” She gets an offended look on her face, but he speaks again before she can start yelling at him. “He likes guys.”

She pauses for a second, then her eyes go bambi huge and she says, “Ohhh.” 

“Uh-huh,” Stiles says with a voracious nod. To stop any more idiotic words from escaping his mouth, Stiles takes another huge bite of his sandwich.

“So,” she says, her perfectly plucked eyebrows scrunching up on her forehead. “Are you two together?” 

Stiles nearly chokes on his sandwich. “Uh. Uh. No,” he manages to stammer. 

She just smiles again and says, “Okay. If you say so.” Then she starts talking to him about the biology homework and it takes all of his effort to listen to her rather than the voice in the back of his head telling him that Derek is going to kill him when he finds out. 

It’s a week, a week of Stiles feeling insistently on edge, before it comes up again. Because of course it’s going to come up again. He knew he wouldn’t just be able to say something like that and have it go unnoticed. This is a small school in a small town. It was bound to spiral out of control. 

It’s just after practice and he’s sitting on the bench staring out at the field and making a concerted effort not to start chewing on the strings of his lacrosse stick, when Danny comes and sits next to him.

“Hey,” Danny says, like this is completely normal, like they talk all the time. “That was pretty good out there, you’ve gotten a lot better.” 

Stiles nods awkwardly at that because well, if Danny talking to him is unusual, Danny complimenting him is absolutely unheard of. 

“So...” Danny starts, but he’s interrupted by Derek showing up, as he tends to do, completely out of nowhere. 

“Hey,” Danny says to Derek with a smile. Danny gets to his feet and Stiles notices that he’s standing a bit taller than usual. Stiles gulps. This causes Derek to give him a weird look, but Stiles says nothing. 

“How’s it going?” Danny asks Derek. Stiles tries not to roll his eyes. 

“Fine,” Derek says. He looks over at Stiles, like Stiles is supposed to do something here. Stiles has no idea what that is. 

“So, do you like Lacrosse?” Danny asks. 

“Not particularly, no,” Derek replies with a look so pained you’d think someone had slapped him. 

“Oh,” Danny says. He smiles again and then says, “You come to an awful lot of games for someone who doesn’t particularly like the sport.” 

Derek shrugs. He doesn’t say what Stiles knows is the truth - Isaac uses his puppy dog face until Derek agrees to go. 

Danny nods like Derek just said something particularly fascinating even though Derek didn’t say anything at all and takes a step towards him. “So if you don’t like Lacrosse, what kind of things do you like?” 

And that’s it. Stiles has to get out of here. “Derek!” he squawks, his hands suddenly waving about in the air, his lacrosse stick nearly smacking Danny in the face. “Didn’t we have um, that thing to get to?” 

Derek raises an eyebrow. “No.” That’s it. That’s all he says. One word.

Stiles scrambles to his feet, this time actually hitting Danny in the back of the head with his lacrosse stick. 

“Hey! Ow!” Danny yelps, raising a hand to the back of his head protectively. 

Stiles, now thoroughly embarrassed, holds the stick down at his side. “Oh, um, sorry,” he mumbles. 

“Whatever,” Danny sighs. He drops his hand to his side and smiles at Derek one more time. “I guess I’ll see you around,” he says before walking off towards the parking lot. 

Once Danny is far enough away, Derek asks, “What is wrong with you?” like there’s an actual answer to that question. 

Stiles shrugs and throws his hands up, accidentally waving the lacrosse stick around again and nearly blinding Derek with it. 

“How about I take that,” Derek growls. It’s supposed to be a question, but the way Derek says it, it isn’t. He grabs the stick away from Stiles without giving him a chance to hand it over. 

“Sorry,” Stiles says weakly. 

“It’s okay,” says Derek. “I’m used to your catastrophic nature by now.” Without waiting for Stiles to follow, he starts off towards the parking lot and his car. 

“Hey!” Stiles shouts, taking a few quick steps to catch up. “I am not catastrophic.” 

“The fact that twice in the past five minutes you nearly hit me in the eye and actually did smack that other kid in the head with this,” Derek holds up the lacrosse stick to make his point, “says differently.” 

Stiles opens his mouth to counter that, but ends up unable to think of anything so he just snaps his mouth shut and crosses his arms. 

Later, when they’re at the mall debating over which video game Stiles should get - Stiles wants to go for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Derek is arguing for Mortal Kombat - when they run into Sarah. 

“Hey, Stiles,” she says casually as she browses the shelves. 

“Oh!” When he sees her, Stiles is so startled he almost drops the game he’d been holding. After a few seconds and weird looks from just about everyone in the store, Sarah and Derek included, Stiles says, “Hi.” 

“Um, so, I was thinking,” she says and she does that thing where she nervously bites down on her bottom lip. “If neither of you have any plans for tuesday night, maybe you could come by the school for the LGBT Alliance meeting? I’m a member and we can always use new people, especially since the both of you are out and everything.” 

The instant she says this, Stiles wants to run out of the store. Run and not come back. He fully intends to, actually, but then his feet refuse to move, like they’ve been cemented in place. 

Derek gets this look on his face, like he’s got a really bad ice cream headache all of a sudden and he says, “I’m sorry, what?” The words sound strangled. 

“Um, the LGBT Alliance? It’s not just for students, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’ve got a few college age members too.” 

“Oh,” Derek says smoothly, “I see.” The game case he’s got in his hand makes an ominous creaking sound. Stiles shudders, but Sarah doesn’t seem to notice, and actually, she gets a bright smile on her face at Derek’s response.

“So I’ll see you there on tuesday?” She says, and now she’s paired up that bright smile with the bambi eyes and Stiles wants to do something, wants to say something. So he opens his mouth to correct her, to tell her that he was lying, that he made the whole thing up, when Derek just nods and smiles at her with that charming smile he keeps locked away most of the time. “Yeah, sure.” 

“Fantastic!” she almost squeals. “I’ll see you then!” And with that she turns around and heads over to the 3DS section of the store. 

Once she’s gone, Derek drops the game case he’d been holding. It’s not cracked, but only barely. “Let’s go,” he says in his full on commanding Alpha voice. Stiles won’t ever admit to it, but in the moment, he’s completely terrified. He lets Derek drag him out of the store. They don’t buy anything. 

They blindly walk halfway down the mall in complete silence before Stiles stops. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know why I said that. She asked me about you last week and I panicked and said you were gay. I don’t know why I did it, but I did it. And I’m sorry. It was a really weird thing to do.” He takes a step back and stuffs both his hands in his pockets. 

Derek’s quiet for a few seconds before he says, “You like me, don’t you?” He’s not angry when he says it, but he’s not happy, either. He’s neutral, like he might be asking some ordinary, plain question, like what time is it or what’s the weather like outside, not a serious, quite possibly life-changing or bone-breaking question like whether or not Stiles likes him. 

“Ummm - well - I -“ Stiles says, each word clipped and broken. He stares down at his feet, unable to handle the heavy, intense look he’s sure Derek is giving him. “Uh...” Well, yes. If he’s honest, really honest in a way he so very rarely ever is, yes. The answer to that question is yes. 

“Well?” Derek says, and now he’s sounding slightly bored. Like this conversation is boring him. Like Stiles having to actually deal with his complicated sexuality is boring to him.

“Well...” Stiles almost says it, he almost says yes, I like you. But first, he has to ask Derek something. “I guess that all depends on whether or not you’re straight.”

Derek sighs, making his irritation with the whole situation even more obvious. “What do you think?” 

“I don’t know what I think,” Stiles says. By this point, he’s been staring at the floor for so long that the tiles are starting to become almost familiar to him, so he looks up. Mostly, it’s just because he can’t stand to stare at the floor any longer, but partly it’s because he wants to see the look on Derek’s face. 

And, of course, the look on Derek’s face is almost completely unreadable.

“Do you actually not see it?” says Derek. “Really?”

And now Stiles is confused. “Not see what?” 

“I spend almost all my time with you. Why else would I do that?” 

“I dunno...” Stiles half-heartedly shrugs. “Because you have nothing better to do?” 

“You know, for a person who talks as much and brags as much as you, you have incredibly low self-esteem,” Derek says. He says it calmly, like it’s nothing but a simple observation. He probably thinks it is. But he’s wrong and Stiles wants to show him just how wrong he is, wants to say something just as mean back but instead of an insult what comes out is, “Do you think I don’t know that?”

“Maybe, maybe not. There are lots of things you clearly haven’t figured out,” Derek says. He stares Stiles down like if he stares at him hard enough, Stiles will understand what he’s trying to say. But Stiles doesn’t get it, he’s not good at this sort of thing and he’s definitely not a mind reader. Though really, even if he was he’s pretty sure that it wouldn’t help him much here, what with how obtuse Derek usually is.

After about ten seconds of the most uncomfortable stare down in a very public place, Stiles finally shouts, “If you’re trying to say something for love of god, just say it!” 

Derek huffs. “I like you, you moron.” 

“Oh.” Suddenly, Stiles is left feeling like the only thing he can do is blink. 

“Yeah.” 

“So...” Stiles says, trailing off after only the one word. He isn’t sure what to say. He isn’t sure he has anything to say.

“So I like you, there’s no need to be making a big deal out of it,” Derek says and just under his usual bravado there’s a broken edge to his words, like maybe he’s scared Stiles doesn’t like him.

And that’s it. Stiles takes a step forward, grabs Derek by the shoulders, and kisses him. It’s messy and unco-ordinated and probably downright not any good. But hey, that’s what practice is for. They like each other, this is going to become a frequent occurrence, no way is Stiles going to let things end up otherwise.

And then Derek is kissing him back and okay, Stiles has nothing to compare it to, but it’s so good, even if it’s kind of a disaster where neither one of them knows what to do with their hands, so they just kind of fly all over the place. 

They break apart seconds later and Stiles finds himself panting just a little. “Oh,” he says when he’s finally caught his breath, “I’m definitely going to be making a big deal out of it.”


End file.
